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Friday, April 27, 2012

The Gallows does it again

A spontaneous double date night brought Adam and I and our friends to The Gallows where between the four of us we made quite a dent in the cocktail (and beer) menu, I finally got to try the Scotch Egg, our entrees were top notch, and I completely fell in love with their signature dessert. It was one of those meals that kept making its way back into our conversations all weekend long (how good everything was, how much fun we had), and not unlike the last time we were there, left us eagerly anticipating our next visit.

The waitress recommended a couple great cocktails; I let her favorites dictate my choices and started out with The Healer ($10)which I learned is one of their original originals, containing rye, mead, bitters and lemon. Also pictured is the Fortune's Find ($10) made with kumquat, gin, lemon and simple syrup. I adore their cocktail names, where they spark intrigue, they also make sense when you think about it! The Healer was soothing and comforting, yet strong, and the Fortune's Find felt like just that, a real gem.

We shared a number of snack plates, beginning with the Scotch Egg ($6), soft boiled with a just-runny-enough yolk, cradled by a gentle layer of sausage, enveloped in a crispy fried breading. Still something of a novelty to me, this dish impressively captures the essence of breakfast in a neatly packaged bite. The Pulled Pork Corn Muffins ($6) have me convinced that all corn muffins should come stuffed with flavorful, meaty hunks of pulled pork and topped with perfectly ripe slices of avocado. The Fava and Sopressata Crostini ($6) layered thin strands of the dry Italian salami over a mash up of fava beans meets fava puree. This was an interesting pair, it didn't have me swooning quite as much as the pulled pork meets corn muffin, but it was a bite that honored the bright, springy fava bean and one worth ordering of you are a fan of either ingredient.

The "Brontosaurus" Short Rib is literally a bone the size of the quoted prehistoric creature. Definitely the largest short rib I've seen, those who ordered it remark that its difficult to cut off the bone, which isn't to say there's anything wrong with the meat, there's just a lot of it. As short ribs often imply fall off the bone, The Gallows version strays from that notion but still delivers tender, tasty meat. Both agreed it was very good, as was the small bite I tasted, which permeated with Asian flavors, a sweet and sour glaze and nuoc cham. Served alongside is a spicy green papaya salad.

My Udon Primavera ($25) comes with the plumpest, freshest, most vibrantly colored green peas, asparagus spears and fava beans, as well sharp radishes, beckoning from within slippery coils of Japanese noodles. I wanted to dive in face first, considering how long those noodles were, I pretty much did. Bathing in a deep, earthy mushroom dashi, the cream of the primavera crop (in Italian, that means springtime!) of vegetables are simply radiant. And my only complaint about the poached egg on top was that there wasn't nearly enough bites of it. We were stuffed, but I'm so glad we ordered dessert. Rum soaked bananas come buried among the smoothest, creamiest peanut butter and chocolate in the Bananas Foster Chocolate Peanut Butter Fluffernutter Brulee ($7). Enhancing the decadence is a perfectly torched layer of thick, gooey marshmallow fluff. My friend (who has had this before) still thinks that it needs something else, something crispy or crunchy, something to offset the creamy texture, but, I think its just about perfect as is. It swiftly joins the ranks as one of my favorite desserts in Boston, right up there with Oleana's Baked Alaska.And same goes for The Gallows overall. I can't get enough of this place!

*Special thanks to Gretchen and Derek for their iPhone lighting skills. My pictures in the dark space would have been nothing without their efforts!*

I'm still thinking about that Scotch Egg and am wishing we ordered the pulled pork muffins, too -- they look amazing! I've just been that once, but the Gallows is definitely one of those places I could picture myself visiting every other week.

Wow! I've never been to the Gallows and your meal looks incredible! I want that pasta, pea and egg dish! Also "The Healer" is a great name for a cocktail. Surely any dessert with a five word name must be good!